Her tormentor was Lucca! Marle couldn't believe her eyes!
It couldn’t be anyone else. The thick glasses and nerdy helmet she wore could belong to none other. Marle was shocked beyond words. The two of them had the kind of bond only soldiers in war could understand. Closer than sisters, they had saved each others lives countless times, and with their four friends, had stood between the world and oblivion. Betrayal was not a strong enough word for what Marle felt.
“What are you talking about?!” Marle snapped, “This isn’t funny! Let me out Lucca! Let me out!!” It seemed like a bad joke, but Marle knew that Lucca didn’t have that kind of sense of humor. Sometimes she was a lot like the machines she studied.
Then Marle noticed that there was a strange look in Lucca’s eyes. It was the same look somebody got when they were under a chaos spell. Marle remembered being under that spell’s effects. It was like your brain just shut down. You didn’t recognize anybody or anything. You shot your friends in the back just because they were closest too you, and you found it hilarious. You’d kill them if somebody didn’t bring you back to your senses first.
Marle knew she was in trouble.
“Are you ready to do what Madam Lucca asks?” Lucca simply repeated again, not even acknowledging that her friend had talked. Even through Lucca’s thick glasses, Marle could see her friends eyes were practically spinning.
“Lucca,” Marle tried to reason with her, “Lucca, you’re my friend. Let me out. I don’t know what’s wrong, but I can help you. I’ll help you with AHH EHEHEH EHEHHHEHEHEH!!!”
The brushes started tickling Marle’s armpits again. This time, instead of stroking across her skin, each bristle started wiggling independent of the others. It was like having a hundred worms squirming over her body.
Marle again descended into hysteria. It was even worse then before. Soon she was cackling madly. It was as if the bristles knew the exact spots on her underarms which were most ticklish and zeroed in on them, prodding and twisting to draw out every possible screech from their victim.
“Are you ready to do what Madam Lucca asks?” the words seem to form directly in Marle’s brain. She definitely couldn’t have heard them over the cacophony that was her own laughter.
Marle resisted giving an answer for a few minutes as the words repeated again and again. Oh Gawd!!! It tickled so much!!! Surely Lucca wouldn’t want her to do anything too bad? Maybe it would be alright…maybe…maybe…
Soon her strength wore out. She just couldn’t take it anymore!
“YEYEYYYESSSS HEHE EHEHEH YEESSESSS HE EHEHEHHEH LUCCAAHAH AHAHHHAHAHHAH DOOO WHAHAHAHHATTT AHHAHHHH LUCCA AHAHAHHAHAHAH WAAHAHNNTTTSS!!!!!!!!!”
The tickling stopped. This time the brushes did pull away from Marle’s skin. Again the blond had to catch her breath with aching lungs.
“Break off your engagement with Crono.” Lucca said with no preamble.
The words took Marle by surprise. She didn’t know what she expected from Lucca in her current condition, but it definitely hadn’t been that.
And part of Marle wanted to say yes. She thought she loved Crono, but they had grown apart lately. And it would get her out of having to be Queen. And it would end the horrible, horrible tickling. She was desperately afraid of what Lucca would do in her confused condition if she said ‘No’.
But…but…there was her father. For as long as Marle could remember, her father’s greatest fear was that the Guardia royal line would end with him. With no son, there was no guarantee the next King would share his genes. He had appointed Crono as heir not only as a reward for saving the world, but as a way of making sure his daughter was Queen. Should she denounce the betrothal, Crono would be free to make any other woman Queen. That would break her dad’s heart.
“I can’t…I can’t Lucca. Anything else. But please, no more…no more tickles. I can’t stand anymore.”
Lucca just shook her head. Sounding a lot like Marle’s old governess, she said “But bad girls need to be punished.”
Marle closed her eyes, prepared for the brushes to go back to work. Instead a green gas started flooding the chamber. The princess held her breath for a few seconds, but eventually had to breath it in. It had a faint, peppery smell to it, but seemed to have no effect.
Not on her anyway. Marle noticed smoke starting to pour from her clothes. Soon her blouse and pants were falling off of Marle in pieces. Then her bra and panties followed. Before she new it, the princess was completely naked, not a stitch covering her body anywhere. Even her hairband had disintegrated, allowing her long, blond hair to fall across her shoulders.
Before Marle could wonder what was going to happen next, she was hit from almost every angle by a jet of warm, soapy water. In seconds, her body was dripping wet and covered in white, foamy bubbles.
“Last chance, princess,” Lucca said smugly, “Break it off.”
"Why?!" Marle cried out in frustration! "Why do you care if we marry?
You were never in love with him..."
"Oh, no princess," Lucca was still smiling, "No explanations here. Do as I say, or we start having fun again."
This wasn’t the Lucca Marle knew. Whatever had come over her had completely taken over her normal, good-natured personality. She might easily order this machine to rip out Marle’s internal organs and leave her for dead. Still, Marle knew she couldn’t give in.
Slowly, the princess shook her head ‘No.’
Marle again heard the grinding of gears. This time, it wasn’t two metal arms coming at her, but six. Each one had brushes at their end. She closed her eyes, knowing what was coming.
The bristles that hit Marle’s skin this time were firmer than the last two, more like the scrub brushes the maids used on the floor. Two brushes found her underarms again, two her belly and two her ribcage, one on each side. Then they began scouring.
Had Marle’s body been dry, these bristles would have hurt, taking off layers of skin and rubbing raw spots on her flesh. Instead, her body was wet and slippery. The soap acted as a lubricant, allowing the bristles to dig in without so much as leaving a mark. The result was inevitable.
“HE EHEHE EHEHEHEHEHE NAWWWOOO AH HEHE EHEHEHHH MERRCCCYY HEH EMERRCYYY HEH HEHEH LUCCAAHAHAHAH HEH EHEH MERCCYYYEHEHE PLEEAASSEHEHEHEH EHEHEH!!!!!!! FRIENEHEHEHENNNDSS HEHEHEHEH WEHEHEHEH HEHEHERRREEEE HEHEHH EHEH WE’REEHEHEHEHH FRIENDSH EHEHEHEHEHE!!!!”
Now the tickling wasn’t just confined to one small area. Bristles poke between her ribs, danced over her flat belly and spiraled into her armpits. Only her legs, still crossed underneath her, were spared.
In her frenzied mind, Marle slipped back to the last time before this she’d really been tickled. She’d crept away to visit with the commoner boy she’d kissed earlier. This time, they met in a cave, planning to go farther than just touching lips. Still an innocent, Marle wasn’t sure how far that would have been. They never got a chance to find out. They governess had discovered she was gone and had sent troops to bring her back almost immediately.
Instead of punishing her immediately, the governess had simply instructed Marle to take a bath and ‘wipe off the filth’. While Marle was in the tub, taking her usual bubble bath, the governess had burst in on her. She had tickled practically every inch of Marle’s soapy body, her bony fingers slipping between clenched legs and arms.
The tickling had been endless. Marle grew so exhausted, the governess had had to hold her head above the water with one hand while tickling her soapy belly and sides with the other. Nails repeatedly gliding over slippery skin, pinching soft, wet flesh wherever they could find it. It had been hell.
“Got to get the dirty girl nice and clean,” the governess had said, over and over again.
Only when a maid had walked in and completely misconstrued what she saw did the governess stop. The next day, after a few teary half truths and one or two outright lies, to her father, Marle finally had the governess shipped out.
This tickling was worse. Instead of ten fingers, there were countless whiskers scouring her flesh. She couldn’t kick or splash like she‘d done in the tub, and there was no chance of a maid walking in.
“You’re a dirty, dirty princess, aren’t you?” Lucca taunted, “I’ll scrub you until you’re nice and clean.”
“O HE EHEHEH NAWWOOOO HO NAWOOOO HEH EHEHEHH PLE PLE HE HEH HEH PLEEAAHE HEHHEHEHEHEHSSSEEEEE LUCCCAHACCHA AHA AHAHAHAHAHAH AHAH NAWWOOOHOHOHO MORREEHE EHEHEHEH!!!!!”
The princess could feel each bristle skimming across her skin, waltzing in her underarms, shimmering up her ribs and poking into her sides. White bubbles were starting to form underneath the brushes, lathering Marle up more and more.
Marle’s laughter became wilder and wilder. Soon, she was bellowing with all her might. The tears dribbling down her cheeks started flowing like a river, blinding her. Her blonde hair, normally kept in a neat ponytail was either flying around her head as her head whipped madly from side to side, or was plastered against her sweaty face and shoulders.
“What do you say, dirty girl? Will you do what Mistress Lucca says? Will you break it off with Crono?”
Marle’s world became a series of sensations. The stiff bristles scouring her underarms and ribs were most dominant, tormenting her flesh. Marle could even feel every drop of warm water and every soapy bubble running down her bare skin. Nothing else existed, however. Her sight grew dim and her own hysterical laughter barely echoed in her ears.
Still, the spirit within her, the very fire that had allowed her to help save the world, burned bright. She mouthed the words “drop dead”, unsure if any sound other than laughter escaped her lips.
Unable to see, the princess had no warning. She suddenly started feeling something brush the undersides of her bare breasts. Far softer than the other tickles, the plumes sweeping Marle’s boobs had an itchy feel to them. The sensation shooting from them was electric.
Her eyes opened wide, and animal like sounds started coming from her mouth. The rest of Marle’s body faded a little into the background. It was like her breasts were covered with thousands of tickly ants! It was unbearable!
“Well, dirty girl? What is it? Do you want the tickles to stop?”
Now, even the tickles on the rest of her body faded, not vanishing, but becoming part of the background anguish that still swept her body. All Marle’s awareness was focused on her breasts. Good sized, but firm, she had always considered them one of her greatest assets. Now, they were her greatest weakness.
There must have been more plumes, because now both the top and underside were covered with tickles. Sound itself stopped coming from Marle’s mouth. Her jaw just hung open, as if to let the agonies flow out of their own accord.
It would have been so, so , so easy to say ‘Yes.” It was impossible to refuse. It took all Marle’s strength to give not even the tiniest response to the question.
The agony lasted forever. No spot on her tender breasts were not being feathered. Even her nipples had something soft and damnable flicking across them. Marle laughed and laughed until her heart was pounding and every muscle in her chest was dying.
Marle was unable to pinpoint the exact moment that her suffering stopped. She must have passed out, descending into a dark world of feathers and phantom tickles. Then, slowly, the void overtook her. Black and cold, it was the sweetest thing she ever knew.
It took a long time for Marle’s brain to return to normal. When it did, Marle was truly sorry. During there fight against LAVOS, she had been stabbed, shot, electrocuted, set on fire, frozen, had huge rocks drop on her head, slimy creatures slide over her face, and a thousand other punishments he had forgotten, but her body was in more pain right now. Every muscle screamed in agony.
Eventually, Marle found the strength to lift her head and shake it a bit to get the hair out of her face. She looked at the screen to see Lucca’s face staring at her with that same crazy look in her eye.
There was no frustration on Lucca's face, no anger or disappointment. She was smiling, as if Marle's resistance was somehow amusing.
“I’m sorry, princess, but it looks like you have decided to do things the hard way.”
Marle wanted to cry. If this wasn't the hard way, she couldn't possibly imagine what was.
It couldn’t be anyone else. The thick glasses and nerdy helmet she wore could belong to none other. Marle was shocked beyond words. The two of them had the kind of bond only soldiers in war could understand. Closer than sisters, they had saved each others lives countless times, and with their four friends, had stood between the world and oblivion. Betrayal was not a strong enough word for what Marle felt.
“What are you talking about?!” Marle snapped, “This isn’t funny! Let me out Lucca! Let me out!!” It seemed like a bad joke, but Marle knew that Lucca didn’t have that kind of sense of humor. Sometimes she was a lot like the machines she studied.
Then Marle noticed that there was a strange look in Lucca’s eyes. It was the same look somebody got when they were under a chaos spell. Marle remembered being under that spell’s effects. It was like your brain just shut down. You didn’t recognize anybody or anything. You shot your friends in the back just because they were closest too you, and you found it hilarious. You’d kill them if somebody didn’t bring you back to your senses first.
Marle knew she was in trouble.
“Are you ready to do what Madam Lucca asks?” Lucca simply repeated again, not even acknowledging that her friend had talked. Even through Lucca’s thick glasses, Marle could see her friends eyes were practically spinning.
“Lucca,” Marle tried to reason with her, “Lucca, you’re my friend. Let me out. I don’t know what’s wrong, but I can help you. I’ll help you with AHH EHEHEH EHEHHHEHEHEH!!!”
The brushes started tickling Marle’s armpits again. This time, instead of stroking across her skin, each bristle started wiggling independent of the others. It was like having a hundred worms squirming over her body.
Marle again descended into hysteria. It was even worse then before. Soon she was cackling madly. It was as if the bristles knew the exact spots on her underarms which were most ticklish and zeroed in on them, prodding and twisting to draw out every possible screech from their victim.
“Are you ready to do what Madam Lucca asks?” the words seem to form directly in Marle’s brain. She definitely couldn’t have heard them over the cacophony that was her own laughter.
Marle resisted giving an answer for a few minutes as the words repeated again and again. Oh Gawd!!! It tickled so much!!! Surely Lucca wouldn’t want her to do anything too bad? Maybe it would be alright…maybe…maybe…
Soon her strength wore out. She just couldn’t take it anymore!
“YEYEYYYESSSS HEHE EHEHEH YEESSESSS HE EHEHEHHEH LUCCAAHAH AHAHHHAHAHHAH DOOO WHAHAHAHHATTT AHHAHHHH LUCCA AHAHAHHAHAHAH WAAHAHNNTTTSS!!!!!!!!!”
The tickling stopped. This time the brushes did pull away from Marle’s skin. Again the blond had to catch her breath with aching lungs.
“Break off your engagement with Crono.” Lucca said with no preamble.
The words took Marle by surprise. She didn’t know what she expected from Lucca in her current condition, but it definitely hadn’t been that.
And part of Marle wanted to say yes. She thought she loved Crono, but they had grown apart lately. And it would get her out of having to be Queen. And it would end the horrible, horrible tickling. She was desperately afraid of what Lucca would do in her confused condition if she said ‘No’.
But…but…there was her father. For as long as Marle could remember, her father’s greatest fear was that the Guardia royal line would end with him. With no son, there was no guarantee the next King would share his genes. He had appointed Crono as heir not only as a reward for saving the world, but as a way of making sure his daughter was Queen. Should she denounce the betrothal, Crono would be free to make any other woman Queen. That would break her dad’s heart.
“I can’t…I can’t Lucca. Anything else. But please, no more…no more tickles. I can’t stand anymore.”
Lucca just shook her head. Sounding a lot like Marle’s old governess, she said “But bad girls need to be punished.”
Marle closed her eyes, prepared for the brushes to go back to work. Instead a green gas started flooding the chamber. The princess held her breath for a few seconds, but eventually had to breath it in. It had a faint, peppery smell to it, but seemed to have no effect.
Not on her anyway. Marle noticed smoke starting to pour from her clothes. Soon her blouse and pants were falling off of Marle in pieces. Then her bra and panties followed. Before she new it, the princess was completely naked, not a stitch covering her body anywhere. Even her hairband had disintegrated, allowing her long, blond hair to fall across her shoulders.
Before Marle could wonder what was going to happen next, she was hit from almost every angle by a jet of warm, soapy water. In seconds, her body was dripping wet and covered in white, foamy bubbles.
“Last chance, princess,” Lucca said smugly, “Break it off.”
"Why?!" Marle cried out in frustration! "Why do you care if we marry?
You were never in love with him..."
"Oh, no princess," Lucca was still smiling, "No explanations here. Do as I say, or we start having fun again."
This wasn’t the Lucca Marle knew. Whatever had come over her had completely taken over her normal, good-natured personality. She might easily order this machine to rip out Marle’s internal organs and leave her for dead. Still, Marle knew she couldn’t give in.
Slowly, the princess shook her head ‘No.’
Marle again heard the grinding of gears. This time, it wasn’t two metal arms coming at her, but six. Each one had brushes at their end. She closed her eyes, knowing what was coming.
The bristles that hit Marle’s skin this time were firmer than the last two, more like the scrub brushes the maids used on the floor. Two brushes found her underarms again, two her belly and two her ribcage, one on each side. Then they began scouring.
Had Marle’s body been dry, these bristles would have hurt, taking off layers of skin and rubbing raw spots on her flesh. Instead, her body was wet and slippery. The soap acted as a lubricant, allowing the bristles to dig in without so much as leaving a mark. The result was inevitable.
“HE EHEHE EHEHEHEHEHE NAWWWOOO AH HEHE EHEHEHHH MERRCCCYY HEH EMERRCYYY HEH HEHEH LUCCAAHAHAHAH HEH EHEH MERCCYYYEHEHE PLEEAASSEHEHEHEH EHEHEH!!!!!!! FRIENEHEHEHENNNDSS HEHEHEHEH WEHEHEHEH HEHEHERRREEEE HEHEHH EHEH WE’REEHEHEHEHH FRIENDSH EHEHEHEHEHE!!!!”
Now the tickling wasn’t just confined to one small area. Bristles poke between her ribs, danced over her flat belly and spiraled into her armpits. Only her legs, still crossed underneath her, were spared.
In her frenzied mind, Marle slipped back to the last time before this she’d really been tickled. She’d crept away to visit with the commoner boy she’d kissed earlier. This time, they met in a cave, planning to go farther than just touching lips. Still an innocent, Marle wasn’t sure how far that would have been. They never got a chance to find out. They governess had discovered she was gone and had sent troops to bring her back almost immediately.
Instead of punishing her immediately, the governess had simply instructed Marle to take a bath and ‘wipe off the filth’. While Marle was in the tub, taking her usual bubble bath, the governess had burst in on her. She had tickled practically every inch of Marle’s soapy body, her bony fingers slipping between clenched legs and arms.
The tickling had been endless. Marle grew so exhausted, the governess had had to hold her head above the water with one hand while tickling her soapy belly and sides with the other. Nails repeatedly gliding over slippery skin, pinching soft, wet flesh wherever they could find it. It had been hell.
“Got to get the dirty girl nice and clean,” the governess had said, over and over again.
Only when a maid had walked in and completely misconstrued what she saw did the governess stop. The next day, after a few teary half truths and one or two outright lies, to her father, Marle finally had the governess shipped out.
This tickling was worse. Instead of ten fingers, there were countless whiskers scouring her flesh. She couldn’t kick or splash like she‘d done in the tub, and there was no chance of a maid walking in.
“You’re a dirty, dirty princess, aren’t you?” Lucca taunted, “I’ll scrub you until you’re nice and clean.”
“O HE EHEHEH NAWWOOOO HO NAWOOOO HEH EHEHEHH PLE PLE HE HEH HEH PLEEAAHE HEHHEHEHEHEHSSSEEEEE LUCCCAHACCHA AHA AHAHAHAHAHAH AHAH NAWWOOOHOHOHO MORREEHE EHEHEHEH!!!!!”
The princess could feel each bristle skimming across her skin, waltzing in her underarms, shimmering up her ribs and poking into her sides. White bubbles were starting to form underneath the brushes, lathering Marle up more and more.
Marle’s laughter became wilder and wilder. Soon, she was bellowing with all her might. The tears dribbling down her cheeks started flowing like a river, blinding her. Her blonde hair, normally kept in a neat ponytail was either flying around her head as her head whipped madly from side to side, or was plastered against her sweaty face and shoulders.
“What do you say, dirty girl? Will you do what Mistress Lucca says? Will you break it off with Crono?”
Marle’s world became a series of sensations. The stiff bristles scouring her underarms and ribs were most dominant, tormenting her flesh. Marle could even feel every drop of warm water and every soapy bubble running down her bare skin. Nothing else existed, however. Her sight grew dim and her own hysterical laughter barely echoed in her ears.
Still, the spirit within her, the very fire that had allowed her to help save the world, burned bright. She mouthed the words “drop dead”, unsure if any sound other than laughter escaped her lips.
Unable to see, the princess had no warning. She suddenly started feeling something brush the undersides of her bare breasts. Far softer than the other tickles, the plumes sweeping Marle’s boobs had an itchy feel to them. The sensation shooting from them was electric.
Her eyes opened wide, and animal like sounds started coming from her mouth. The rest of Marle’s body faded a little into the background. It was like her breasts were covered with thousands of tickly ants! It was unbearable!
“Well, dirty girl? What is it? Do you want the tickles to stop?”
Now, even the tickles on the rest of her body faded, not vanishing, but becoming part of the background anguish that still swept her body. All Marle’s awareness was focused on her breasts. Good sized, but firm, she had always considered them one of her greatest assets. Now, they were her greatest weakness.
There must have been more plumes, because now both the top and underside were covered with tickles. Sound itself stopped coming from Marle’s mouth. Her jaw just hung open, as if to let the agonies flow out of their own accord.
It would have been so, so , so easy to say ‘Yes.” It was impossible to refuse. It took all Marle’s strength to give not even the tiniest response to the question.
The agony lasted forever. No spot on her tender breasts were not being feathered. Even her nipples had something soft and damnable flicking across them. Marle laughed and laughed until her heart was pounding and every muscle in her chest was dying.
Marle was unable to pinpoint the exact moment that her suffering stopped. She must have passed out, descending into a dark world of feathers and phantom tickles. Then, slowly, the void overtook her. Black and cold, it was the sweetest thing she ever knew.
It took a long time for Marle’s brain to return to normal. When it did, Marle was truly sorry. During there fight against LAVOS, she had been stabbed, shot, electrocuted, set on fire, frozen, had huge rocks drop on her head, slimy creatures slide over her face, and a thousand other punishments he had forgotten, but her body was in more pain right now. Every muscle screamed in agony.
Eventually, Marle found the strength to lift her head and shake it a bit to get the hair out of her face. She looked at the screen to see Lucca’s face staring at her with that same crazy look in her eye.
There was no frustration on Lucca's face, no anger or disappointment. She was smiling, as if Marle's resistance was somehow amusing.
“I’m sorry, princess, but it looks like you have decided to do things the hard way.”
Marle wanted to cry. If this wasn't the hard way, she couldn't possibly imagine what was.
